peppers

Garden Gifts

~ McArtor ~ 1 Comment

We are overflowing with peppers (bells and cubanelles), eggplants (neon, Italian, Chinese and globe varieties) and another 40 pounds of tomatoes.  We can not keep up with the processing of all these veggies.   We  shared with friends, family and the food bank.   I spend my free time searching for recipes, chopping, freezing or canning.    We canned 30 quarts of tomatoes and 11 pints of salsa.  We have several gallon freezer bags filled with chopped peppers and roasted eggplant slices (some plain or coated with bread crumbs).  The eggplant slices can replace the noodles in lasagna.

We are grateful for this wonderful veggie bounty, but the best gift from the garden came today.  It was not the 45 more pounds of veggies we picked (not in the photo).  It was when my son eagerly helped me plant the fall crops of broccoli, cauliflower, romaine lettuce, kale and fennel.  He put on gloves, tucked in each newly planted seedling with a handful of fertilizer and a smile!

New Crop of Peppers

~ McArtor ~ 3 Comments
new crop of green cherry bomb peppers

Pepper plants thrive in the cool moist fall weather.  Our potted Jalapeno and Cherry Bomb pepper plants on our deck are loaded with new peppers.  A few Bell and Habanero pepper plants at our community garden plot are still producing fruit, too.

stuffed cherry bomb peppers

The Jalapeno and Cherry Bomb peppers are perfect for spicy mouth popping appetizers. They are not too hot when the seeds and membranes are cut out. Actually, some of the jalapenos were quite mild. I wore rubber gloves and cut out off the pepper tops and sliced out the seed membranes (the white part holding the seeds). Then I stuffed the peppers with of mixture of sausage, cheese, beaten egg and bread crumbs. I cooked them for 15 minutes at 400 degrees fahrenheit. My husband and guests enjoyed them with homemade pizza. Our eyes watered a bit, but no one said they were “too hot.”

Goodbye October

~ McArtor ~ 3 Comments

The month of October ends with a photo-free post.   It is the start of a new tradition at Our Garden Plot.   A  Photo-Free Finish on the last day of each month.  It is a chance to practice creating vivid word pictures about our garden plot.

October garden highlights:

1.  We pulled out our last row of tired tomato plants.
2.  We pulled out big round radishes and long crunchy carrots from the ground.
3.  I made bean and noodle soups from fresh picked escarole and endive.
4.  We dug out football-size sweet potatoes from the soil below shriveled vines.
5.  Our glorious fig tree shed its leaves.
6.  Our turnip, lettuce, radish and spinach seeds sprouted leaves.
7.  We harvested a grocery bag of thick crisp string beans.
8.   We conquered the greedy Mexican bean beetles.
9.   We picked pounds and pounds of pungent, plump and pointed peppers.
10.  We roasted and froze our habanero peppers for the first time.
11.  We dumped a manure and compost mix onto our plot.
12.  We prepared the soil for next year’s garden.

What are your October garden highlights?